Sad-iron.



` W. HOPKINS.

SAD IRON.

APPLICATION FILED JAN- 2, I9I4.

Patented Oct. 10, 1916.

rinfrn sfra'rns PATENT ornicn.

GEORGE W. HOPKINS, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR T0 THE ACETYLENE STOVE MANUFACTURING COMFANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, .A CORPORATION 0F OHIO.

Y san-IRON.

Leccese.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented oet. 1o, i916.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. HOPKINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, havel invented a certain new and useful Improvement' in Sad-Irons, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to sad irons and especially to an iron heated by a gas fiance applied to the interior of the iron.

One of the main objects of the invention is to provide a sad iron whose construction admits of the continued application of an acetylene flame to the interior of the iron structure, without any danger of the gas being decomposed and causing formation and deposition of soot, or of the flame being extinguished or of fiashing back into the interior of the burner.

Still further, the invention aims to provide a construction wherein the flame is so directed, distributed and controlled that it will not flash out through the openings provided along the sides of the iron, and wherein the maj or portion of the heat of the flame is either applied directly to or is rapidly and effectively conducted to the base of the iron.

Iii general, it is the object of the invention to provide an iron which may be heated by a flame of acetylene applied to the interior of the iron, and which is efficient and satisfactory in operation.

The above and other objects which will appear in the detail description are attained by my invention, which may be briefly described as consisting in certain novel details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims. Y v

In the accompanying sheet of drawings wherein I have sho-wn the preferred embodiment of my invention, Figure lisaside view of a sad iron constructed in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view` of the same; Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4L is a top plan view with the cover of the iron removed,

and Fig. 5 is a sectional view through the rear part of the sad iron and through the burner.

The sad iron constructed in accordance with my invention, is provided with a body portion 10 of customary shape exteriorly. This body 10 which is hollow or chambered, is provided with a flat ironing or pressing base 11, and with a removable cover or top portion l12 provided with a` handle 13. The top 12 which per se forms no part of the present invention, is Composed'of heat insulated lower and upper sections, and is detachably secured to the body 10 by any suitable means, lwhich in the present case consists of interlocking parts 14: at the front endof the iron, and a clamping thumb nut 15 which engages a threaded pin 15a on the rear end of the body and extending upwardlyrv in a slotted or bifurcated part at the rear of the cover.

One of the principal features of the present invention resides in the arrangement of parts, and in the details of construction by which excessive heating of the burner, and consequent decomposition of they gas and extinction or flashing back of the flame into the interior of the burner is entirely avoided, even though the burner is arranged at a downward inclination, and is henceso positioned with respect to the flame that there is a natural tendency for lthe latter toheat the burner.

As far as I am aware, all attempts heretofcre to produce a successful sad iron which is heated by an interior acetylene flame have failed, due largely `to the fact that the burner is, aftera very brief period of use, overheated. I believe that the failure of the prior acetylene heated sad irons is due to a great extent to a commonly accepted, but false theory, that it is essential to insulate the burner from the body of the iron to prevent overheating of the burner.

Injthe construction which I have provided, I avoid the overheating of the burner with its consequent serious disadvantages, regardless of the period of time that the burner or fia-me is in action, by a very inaterial departure from the heretofore generally accepted theory that insulation of the burner is necessary. This .I accomplish by not only avoiding the use of all insulating media between the iron and the burner, but by enhancing conduction between the iron and the burner 'as much as possible,- in other words, by so arranging and constructing the parts that the burner and iron are in best possible heat conducting relationship. By so doing, I secure Such an effective equalization and dissipation of heat from the neighborhood of the burner that overheating of the latter is avoided. For an understanding of this important feature, the construction of the burner should first be observed. The burner includes a mixing tube 17 which at its end remote from the iron is provided with an air intake chamber 18 to which will be secured a flexible gas supplying tube, not shown. At its inner end, the mixing tube 17 is expanded, and has a threaded connection with an expanded mixing chamber 19 consisting of a tubular orrcylindrical body provided with restricted orifices which prevent back flashing of the fia-ine into the interior of the chamber, these orifices being in the form of narrow slots 19a which are closely arranged and extend lengthwise of the chamber 19. Screwed onto the outer end of the mixing chamber 19 is a delivery cap 2O provided at its inner end with a central delivery orifice 20a, and separated from the mixing chamber by an annular space in which further commingling of air and gas takes place before the mixture passes through the delivery orifice. It will be noted that the mixing tube 17, mixing chamber 19, and delivery cap 20 have good heat conducting relationship, by reason of which the heat may readily pass from one member to the other. The delivery cap 20 extends through and has a very close threaded connection with the rear wall 2l of the iron, the inner end of the delivery cap being just within the wall of the iron, and the burner as a whole being inclined downwardly so that the flame which will be projected from the inner end of the delivery cap will be directed down onto the base 11 of the iron.

To avoid overheating of the cap, I provide good conducting relationship between the cap and the portion of the iron through which the cap extends by intimately associating these parts, and by providing as much metal as possible of one in contact with the other. This is brought out by providing on the rear wall 21 an inclined boss 22 and by providing on the interior of the boss and on the exterior of the delivery cap, a very close pitch thread, so that when `the burner or the delivery cap of the burner is screwed into the boss and into the end wall of the iron, the major portion of the cap is in direct contact with said end wall or boss,`so that heat can readily pass from the delivery cap into theV rear part of the iron, and so will be conducted-from the delivery cap and dissipated in the parts of lower temperature. I find that with this construction, neither the delivery cap nor the inner mixing chamber will become sufficiently hot that the 'acetylene gas will decompose or iiash backinto the cap.

On the interior of the iron and above the base 11, a. short distance in advance of the orifice of the'burner, 1 provide a baflie plate 23, which in accordance with another feature of my invention is inclined downwardly toward the front of the iron. This baflie plate is provided with a number of burner openings 241 distributed over the same, and through these burner openings, the unconsumed gas, that is the gas not consumed between the base 11 and baffle 23, passes, and is ignited in the form of small iiames which are above the baiiie. These burner openings 2&1 are not of uniform size, but preferably are of gradually decreasing size from the rear of the baffle to the front, four different sizes of openings 4being here shown, there being a group of openings of each size. I find that this arrangement of openings in the baffle is preferable, as l am thus enabled to secure a more uniform distribution of fiame over the baflie, whereas, if the openings were of uniform size and uniformly spaced, the fiame or flames at the forward end of the baffle would be much higher than those at the rear end, the natural tendency for the unconsumed gas being to pass through the forward openings rather than through the rear openings. However, by

varying the size or distribution of the openings, the flames can be distributed as desired, and the consequent heat can be either distributed or localized as circumstances may require.

It will be understood of course that considerable heat is imparted to the baflie plate both bythe fiame beneath and above the same. In order that as great a proportion as possible of this heat may be utilized in heating the base 10, I provide good conducting relationship between the baiiie plate and the base 11 by providing along the side walls of the iron and integral with the base, rather massive heat conducting shoulders 25 to which the baflie plate is suitably secured by means of screws 2G, and through which the heat is very readily conducted from the baffie to the base 11. Y

In each of the side walls of the iron, and near the base 11 are arranged a series of air intake openings 27, a large opening 28 being provided in each of the side walls at the rear of the heat conducting shoulders 25, and the other openings passing transversely through the conducting shoulders 25.

Preferably, the inner walls of the conducting shoulders 25 are fluted or corrugated, the indentations of the corrugations being located in line with the openings. This feature has two advantages, viz: the corrugations increase the heat absorbing capacity of the conducting shoulders, and the decrease in the length of the air intake openings through the shoulders decreases the resistance to the inflow of air and consequently admits of a greater flow ofair than would be possible if the air were conducted through a thicker wall, assuming of course that the openings are of the same size.

In the upper part of the side walls of the iron are provided elongated vent openings 29 through which pass outwardly the products of combustion. I prefer to provide also a vent o-pening 30 in the front wall or apex of the iron, as I find `that with a rather large vent opening provided at this point, a more desirable distribution of the flame is obtained.

lVith the construction above described, not only is there such a good conduction of heat away from the burner that overheating of the latter is avoided, but the construction is such that high efficiency is obtained in the respect that the major portion of the heat is applied or conducted to that part of the iron which it is desired to heat. Furthermore, the arrangement and relative sizes of the burner openings in the baffle, together with the arrangement of air intake and vent openings are such that an even distribution of flame is obtained, and there is no danger of the flame shooting out laterally through the vent openings 29.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a burner extending through the wall of the iron, said burner comprising an inner mixing chamber provided with orifices and an outer delivery cap provided with an orifice, there being a space between the mixing chamber and delivery cap, said delivery cap and the wall of the iron through which the burner extends being in close engagement for a portion of the length of the cap.

2. In combination, a chambered sad iron having a boss, a burner extending through the boss comprising an inner mixing chamber having a plurality of orifices and a delivery cap surrounding and spaced from the orificed part of the mixing chamber, said cap being tightly fitted in said boss.

3. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a gas burner extending through the rear wall of the iron, a baffle in the iron extending across the chamber and inclined downwardly from its rear end to its forward end, and at its forward end engaging the base of the iron, the said baffle having distributed openings.

4. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a gas burner extending through the wall of the iron, a baille in the iron extending across the chamber and inclined downwardly from its rear end to its forward end, and at its forward end engaging the front wall of the iron adjacent the base of the latter, said baffle having distributed perforations.

5. In combination, a said iron having an inner chamber, a gas burner extending through the wall thereof, a perforated baffle plate inclined downwardly from its rear end to its forward end and extending acrossthe chamber from one side wall thereof to the other,vanda pair of shoulders supporting the bafile, said shoulders being continuous from the .rear end to the forward end of the baffle and being integral with the sides and base of the iron. Y

6. In combination, a sad iron having an interiorchamber, a burner extending into the same, a pair of downwardly inclined shoulders arranged along the sides and integral with the sides and base of the chamber, and a downwardly inclined perforated baffle extending over and secured to said shoulders.

7. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a gas burner extending through the rear wall of the iron, apair of corrugated downwardly inclined baffle supporting shoulders arranged along the sides of the iron, and a downwardly inclined perforated bafiie supported on said shoulders and extending from one side of the iron to the other.

8. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a gas burner extending through the rear wall thereof, a baffle arranged above the base of the iron, a pair of baffle supporting shoulders along opposite sides of the iron, said shoulders having along the side walls thereof indentations and air intake openings ex- 'tending through the side walls and shoulders in line with saidindentations.

9. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a gas burner extending through the rear wall of the iron and inclined downwardly toward the base of the iron, a baffle plate arranged above the base and inclined downwardly from its rear end to its front end and extending from one side of the iron to the other, shoulders arranged along the sides of the iron and extending inwardly from the sides and integral with the sides and base, said shoulders supporting said baffle plate, said iron having air intake openings in its side walls beneath the baffle and adjacent the base, and having vent openings in its side walls above the baffie.

10. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a burner extending through the rear wall of the iron, a baffle plate supported above the base of the iron forwardly of said burner, said. baffle plate having burner openings of varying sizes.

11. In combination, a chambered sad iron, a downwardly inclined gas burner extending through the rear wall of the iron, a bafiie supported above the base of the ironforwardly of said burner and inclined downwardly from its rear end, said baffle being provided with distributed burner openings, the openings adjacent the forward end of the plate being smaller than the openings near the rear end of the plate.

12, In combination, a chambered sad iron iisV having a downwardly inclined burner eX- air inlet openings, and said side walls and tending through the rear wall thereof, a the front of the iron being provided above baiile arranged above the base forwardly of the baiiie with vent openings. the burner and inclined downwardly from In testimony whereof, I hereunto afliX iny 5 its rear end, said baille being provided with signature in the presence of two witnesses. 15

distributed burner openings of gradually GEORGE 7 HOPKINS decreasing size from the rear to the front end, baliie supporting shoulders arranged vWitnesses: along the side walls of the iron, said side HELEN SwANCo'iT, 1Q walls being pi'ovidedbeneath the baliie with A. F. Kwis.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

